


Friday the 27th

by LanCylan



Category: Monstercat, Original Work, Pegboard Nerds, 東京マシン | Tokyo Machine
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Coffee Shop, EDM festival, Fantasy, Full Moon, Gen, Mystery, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Phenomenon, Self-Insert, Slow To Update, Transformation, sleepover
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-07
Updated: 2019-04-04
Packaged: 2019-05-19 08:49:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14870600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LanCylan/pseuds/LanCylan
Summary: At an EDM festival, what’ll happen when two girls find themselves experiencing one of the largest phenomenons the world has seen, if not the largest?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> After months of waiting along with procrastination, this is finally posted. I ended up getting sick around the time I was finishing this, but I made sure the writing doesn’t look sloppy. Also, if a tagged character doesn’t appear in this chapter, it means that they’ll be in one in the future.

It was a dark and stormy night; anyone who denied that was a fool. A young woman, by the name of Madi, was walking through the rain with her umbrella high above her head and a suitcase in her left hand, wheels roughly rolling along the cement surface. A flash of lightning hit not too far away, and her instincts told her what to do now.

Meanwhile, a fox under the name of Lexicon was sitting on her couch checking her messages, waiting for her friend to arrive for at least fifteen minutes. She then decided to check the weather app and received a message. A thunderstorm warning. This started to worry her greatly.

“Where’s Madi? She should have been here ages ago, should I call her? I really hope she’s okay…”

Just then, Madi turned left and went up the steps to the house, and performed the special knock pattern she established with Lexicon. So, she already knew who it was.

“Speak of the devil, there she is now!” Lexicon leaped off of her couch and rushed towards the door. When the door opened, Madi was greeted with a familiar vulpine face, but she seemed to be relieved about something.

“Madi, are you alright? I got the weather notification and was super worried.” Madi closed her umbrella and wiped off the dirt and moisture from her cobalt Converse sneakers onto the mat, and then she allowed herself to step inside.

“Yeah I’m alright, but there was this gigantic traffic collision due to how wet it is outside. Scary stuff.”

“Oh yeah, I heard about that. Glad you’re okay.” She noticed Madi’s damp clothes and shoes. “You may want to change into something else, you might get sick if you stay if your current attire.” Madi gave off a small, reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, Lex. I packed some extra clothes in my suitcase.” She untied her shoes and placed them near the door.

“Ah, okay. You want me to make some tea when you come down?”

“Sure, just regular tea sounds good.”

* * *

 

_Attention parents and grandparents of young children. Have you received this special notice from Gerber Life?_

As the girls ate their food and sipped their tea, they were a smidge curious at what the television was showing them, Madi even more so. “Wait, they _still_ air this commercial?”

“I guess so. It’s been on since…” Lexicon paused. “...honestly, I really don’t know how long it’s been on.”

“...huh.”

“...yeah.”

Silence.

Madi continued to eat, but Lexicon just looked down for a moment, and then back at Madi. “So… unrelated, but do you know what’s going on with the moon?”

“I think so. People are saying it’ll do weird things on Friday, right?”

“Pretty much. But look, I just remembered that I had this old book buried in my closet, and this whole moon phenomenon thing seems so similar to all the things that happen in the book.”

She pulls out the book onto the coffee table and wiped the dust off of it. “It’s called the Book of Vanq. Apparently no one knows the author of the book or when it was published.”

Madi looked surprised. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, so the news says that the moon is going to cause weird things to happen. However, they didn’t say what sorts of things will happen though.” Lexicon then opens the book and places a finger on a page.

“Woah, what’s that?”

“Looks like someone snipped some characters down the middle and glued them together,” Lexicon replied. “I can’t make out the title on this one, but the caption says that ‘whenever the full moon rises on a summer Friday, some things—and people—revert to stranger tendencies.’”

“Umm… holy crap.”

Lexicon then proceeded to flip through some more pages. “This one says ‘No Mercy for the Cursed Neon.’” The illustration depicted a humanoid with sharp teeth about to bite another humanoid in the neck—but the so-called prey had multiple bright colors and hardly any facial features—all while the other character’s arms are curled around. It had a cool colored vibe to it. “‘He could have made up for it. But now he won’t have a choice; it is what it is.’ What do you think this means?”

“I don’t know, but man, the big glowing guy getting his ass beat looks like some kind of colorful bootleg Grillby. At least he has an okay sense of fashion.”

“You know what? You have a point, but don’t these characters look kind of… familiar?”

“Probably, I feel like I’ve seen something similar to this, but I can’t put my finger on it…”

“Well, it’s probably just a hunch. I’m gonna put this away for now.” She then places the book back under the coffee table. “I’m gonna get ready for bed now.”

“Same here.”

* * *

 

6:40 AM. Lexicon woke up with a _pulsating_ headache, probably from the dream she had. She lightly nudged Madi in her sleeping bag.

“Yo, Madi… I just had a dream that I was like… really tiny. Weird, right?”

“That honestly sounds pretty funny. You being tiny.”

“Hehe, I guess.” Let a short moment of chuckling commence.

Madi turned back to Lexicon. “So, do you wanna go downtown and get something to drink over at the corner? I heard they’re gonna have some special discounts today.”

Lexicon was still a little groggy, but come on, she couldn’t say no to that. “Sure thing. Just let me take an Advil and get ready real quick.”

* * *

 

The two headed out the door. It was still somewhat damp and a bit cloudy, but at least their feet aren’t sopping wet. They avoided the road where the car crash occurred.

“Remember that scene in Aggretsuko when Haida thought Retsuko was pregnant?”

“Oh my gosh yes! That was so awkward!”

“I know, right?”

“But what made you bring _that_ up?”

“Dunno, just bored and zoning off, I guess. And—wait, Madi…” she put her hand on Madi’s shoulder. “I think we walked past the coffee shop.”

Madi looked behind her. “Oh. You’re right.” They both turned around and walked through the propped-open glass door.

Lexicon leaned over to Madi. “This place is uh… better than Starbucks to me.” She tried to stay somewhat quiet.

They both sat down and ordered. Lexicon just ordered a regular coffee. Madi didn’t really like coffee, so she just ordered a hot chocolate.

Right when Lexicon was going to drink her coffee, something caught in the corners of her eyes. At a small table in a corner, there was someone just minding their own business. But it wasn’t what they were doing that caught her attention, it was their appearance, but in a good way of course. Said person had short silver hair as well as a sleek suit. That’s all she could make out without wanting to be creepy.

“Hey, Madi… is that person over there who I think it is?”

“...holy shit. I think it is. But hang on Lexi, if that’s somebody else, that would be pretty embarrassing…”  
Lexicon gave the statement some thought. “Oh… yeah. Well… I guess it wouldn’t hurt to just say good morning, right?”

“I guess.”

Madi carefully walked up to the table, feeling a little jittery due to excitement if this guy even was Tokyo Machine. What if it was Ghastly? Whatever, she wouldn’t mind if it was Ghastly, it would be fine either way. After all, the sign out in front encouraged people to make new friends. Lexicon followed behind her.

“Um… morning?” Madi’s heart was slightly speeding up at this point.

The man turned around, revealing the glasses and mask on his face. “Oh, hey there.” His voice sounded somewhat robotic but still cheerful.

“So… u-um… I-I’m Mad- _okaysorryI’mfangirlingggggg!_ ” She started blushing profusely.

Lexicon decided to step in. “Anyway, she’s Madi and I’m Lexicon. We’re huge fans of yours, and we _really_ hope we aren’t invading your privacy.”

“No, no, you two are fine.”

Madi started to come back to her normal state. “Sorry about that…”

“Well, as I said, it’s cool.”

The fox interfered again. ”…Anyway, we’re heading to the festival where you’re performing later tonight. We have VIP passes so maybe we’ll talk more there?”

“Sounds good.” He gave the two girls a thumbs up.

“Cool, see you there.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the three-set show, the side effects slowly make their presence on everyone, and claim Tokyo Machine as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bet you didn’t expect this, huh?
> 
> Hopefully this doesn’t seem too bad or rushed, the next chapters will be a whole lot more interesting and detailed, I promise. Also I’m not sure if there is a real place called Raver’s Corner or something.  
> (For non-DeviantArt users, Pixie is a friend’s character.)

Lexicon and Madi had left the shop with satisfied stomachs as well as a nice experience to remember. It seemed like the weather had greatly improved; the ground was no longer damp, and it should be dry and safe enough to set up anything exposed that required electricity outside.

“That was so cool,” Madi exclaimed. She was still giddy after the encounter earlier in the day. “I honestly can’t believe that we ended up meeting Tokyo Machine, at a local coffee shop out of all places!” Lexicon nodded in agreement.

“You’re right. And we’ll get to see him again later tonight at Raver’s Corner as well, with the Pegboard Nerds and Nanobii.”

“Exactly! I’m really happy that music artists are starting to visit Milwaukee more often.”

“Me too.” Lexicon stopped for a moment to think. “But… it gets really dangerous around here, y’know? I just hope nothing goes wrong.”

“Oh... yeah. I believe that the host is going to be taking extreme safety procedures now, so we should be fine.”

“Good to know. I think we should start getting ready for tonight.”

* * *

 

It took way longer than usual to get ready. But, as it turns out, a walk to the venue from Lexicon’s house is extremely short.

“God, I’m so pumped! I haven’t been to a Monstercat concert before.”

“Me eith—” Lexicon stopped dead in her tracks. “Wait… I just realized… we should remember that the full moon will be out, possibly doing all that weird stuff.”

“Well, I understand that, but I say we don’t worry about it for now. We came here to have fun, remember?” That was true. This is one of many places where fans of all walks can come together and celebrate their interest. Something like this in such a commonly ignored area is considered a special treat. It was weird how with all of the stimuli from the lights and the music, the two could feel almost in an euphoric mental state, from one set to another.

There couldn’t have been a better way to spend this night.

* * *

 

The show was now over with. Most people have left the venue and everyone else was starting to settle down.

“Now, _that_ was fun!”

“You said it. Which set was your favorite?”

“I don’t know, every set was great in its own way.”

“Yeah, that’s the answer I’m going with too. Anything that seemed to pop out?”

“Not too sure about the show itself, but I think I saw a bunch of people just randomly vomiting, but they didn’t even seem too bothered, almost as if their minds went blank. Doesn’t that seem kind of unusual?”

“That’s odd. I just saw some people doing weird stuff as well, like exiting the venue by walking backwards.”

“I’m going to be honest, do you think it’s that moon?”

“Lexi, I’ve told you a million times that I’m not too sure. You need to not worry so much.”

Lexicon was taken somewhat aback by the sudden attitude. “Jeez, okay. I’m gonna head back to the house, I’ll see you in a bit, okay?”

“Okie-dokie, I’ll be there in—”

“Uhh…”

Tokyo Machine started jittering, his eyes turning into O shapes as round as hula-hoops. Madi turned around to see what was wrong.

“...Tokyo? What’s wrong?”

“I have to go, it’s an emergency.”

“Wai—” Before Madi could finish her question, Tokyo had run off into the woods. The rustling noises started to get quieter the further off he ran.

“Was it something I said?” Madi yelled. There was no response back.

“Should I stay near? Lexicon already left…”

* * *

 

The side effects had finally come, and as Tokyo Machine ran like his life depended on it, he _knew_ this would happen, whether anyone would ever want it to or not. He eventually tripped and collapsed behind a bush before he could properly hide.

“F-fuck, I don’t know what to do…” This wasn’t a type of pain that he had ever felt before; maybe similar to a Charley horse through his entire body, but this was somehow even worse. He curled up and started to violently grasp at the ground, hoping that the process would be over soon.

And then, after what felt like a million eons, it was.

Everything went blank. He went as limp as a ragdoll, but slowly and surely managed to gain his consciousness back once again, despite still having trouble getting back up. Looking down at his hands, he noticed that his nails had grown longer and sharper; they weren’t as fragile anymore. However, as Tokyo glanced behind himself, he found out that the claws were just the icing on the cake. He had transformed into a naga while he blacked out, with his tail covered in quite possibly the most vibrant, noticeable blue scales known to man.

Madi was still looking around for him. He could hear her calling out his name multiple times.

Tokyo Machine’s breaths were becoming even shakier. “I gotta hide, quick… but where?”

He attempted to use his new lower body to his advantage and darted up one of the trees, hoping that Madi didn’t see him like this.

“Toky— _huh?!_ ”

Madi gasped. She was frozen from both pure fear and awe, as some of Tokyo’s lower snake body had accidentally dropped down from the branch.

Tokyo Machine had gone into a panic now. “Okay, how do I control this tail thing? Come on, get up…”

With the rest of him being obscured by the tree’s leaves, Madi couldn’t properly identify what—or who—this was.

Commence a blood-curdling scream.

Without any second thoughts, she sprinted back to the direction of the festival grounds, not even sparing a passing glance at Tokyo’s ripped pants left over from the transformation. Everything else was completely unaffected, however.

“Madi! Please don’t…”

But it was too late; the damage was done. To add insult to injury—or maybe vice versa—the tree branch had snapped under his weight, sending him to plummet right back into the bush with the branch falling on his back. A shock of pain rippled through his entire body.

“Don’t leave me here…”

Tokyo let out a sigh of defeat. But, just as he was about to lose his consciousness again, he heard someone in the distance coming his way. At first he was filled with terror, begging to himself that this wasn’t some kind of illegal hunter. As the figure came closer, he recognized the silhouette right away.

It was Pixie!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tokyo Machine tries to make things right again.

“Toki! Where are you?”

Tokyo Machine reached out one of his hands, albeit very shaky. “Pixie… here.”

Pixie turned her head and immediately ran over to him, her expression similar to seeing someone eat a kitten. Only Tokyo’s head and arms were visible.

“Tokyo! Are you okay? Why are you all dirty?” She looked at the dark gray pair of pants laying on the ground, thinking of every potential scenario besides the truth.

“And why did you take your pants off?” She slowly managed to lift the tree branch off of Tokyo’s back. Luckily, only a sharp pain lingered in his back rather than broken bones.

“Thank you,” Tokyo pushed himself back up. “I can explain everything, but… please promise you won’t run away, okay?”

Pixie seemed puzzled. “Alright, but how come?”

He took a deep breath in. There was nowhere for him to escape now.

“Well…” he pushed himself back up and carefully slid out of the bush, revealing the rest of him, including his new lower half. “This is why.”

“O-oh… that’s it?”

Tokyo was shocked. He expected Pixie to run away, just like Madi. “You aren’t scared?”

Pixie chucked. “No, not really. I changed too.”

Now he was definitely lost on what was happening. _Does this mean that other people will change?_ “What? How?”

“Look at my eyes.”

Pixie pushed back her bangs. To Tokyo’s surprise once again, Pixie’s eyes had become a dark, saturated blue; they’ve always been a grungy shade of scarlet.

“Huh, not as major for you, I guess.”

“Maybe so,” said Pixie.

Tokyo Machine felt glad that someone had come for him, but something seemed amiss. He hadn’t seen Nuro, one of the other performing artists, for a while.

“Hey, is Nuro okay?”

“He’s claimed that his lower back felt kind of weird, but otherwise he’s been okay. Do you want to tell me what happened?”

He completely forgot the initial subject matter. The moment with Madi started to come right back to him. “Oh, yeah. Onto that.”

* * *

 

“I’m not getting eaten tonight!”

Madi ran as if her life depended on it. There was no way that she was going to let herself die, but her legs couldn’t take it anymore. She was either safe from harm at that moment, or presumably doomed. The woods were absent of strange noises, and nothing could be easily seen by the human eye besides trees and bushes.

“I think I ran far enough,” groaned Madi. She tried to catch her breath, while leaning over and grabbing onto her knees.

But just then, a realization hit her; this wasn’t where she came from. A giant rock sat in the clearing, surrounded by all of the foliage.

“Oh shit. I don’t remember this rock.” There wasn’t much for her to do now but to retrace her steps, but would that even work?

“Alright, um… the festival grounds are over… no, that’s not it…”

Madi had become even more anxious. If something was actually tracking her down, she was as good as prey.

“Maybe I should stay here, and hope for the best.”

Madi sat on the rock and pulled out her phone. The location services wouldn’t work, but she wanted to see if she could still text other people. Lexicon would probably start to become concerned once again, so why would it hurt to try?

**Madi: Lexi… I might not be back to your house for a while. I ended up getting lost in the woods near the festival grounds, but I’ll come back, okay?**

Seen.

**Lexicon: Thanks for telling me. I’ll try to get to you soon, I can’t talk right now.**

A loud rustle came from the bushes, making Madi jolt. “What the hell?” Terrified, she crouched behind the rock, thinking about what could pop out of the bushes. Instead of some sort of ravenous beast, two blue figures came out—one with a hat and facial hair and another with long hair, who spoke first.

“Hey there, are you doing okay?” questioned Odden.

“The Pegboard Nerds? What are you two doing here?”

“We came to talk to you about Tokyo Machine.”

Madi’s heart sank. “Did something bad happen?”

“Well, I heard something about you running away from him.”

The pieces started to come together for Madi. The supposed large snake that she ran away from earlier must have been Tokyo Machine, there was no other possible explanation for this.

“Hang on, are you saying that he transformed into a naga?”

“Yes,” both rivets sat next to the rock. “He misses you. Ever since then, he’s been feeling upset and guilty. Pixie just told us to find you.”

Madi had to admit, now that she knew what was happening, she felt horrible for abandoning him like that. “Oh, I see. I guess I should give him another chance. Maybe we could find a time to play video games or something.”

“Alright, I’ll let him know. Thanks for understanding.”

“No problem.”

Parsberg adjusted his hat and chimed in. “Do you need help getting out of here?”

“Yes, please.”

* * *

 

After leaving the woods, Madi’s first thought was to go back to Lexicon’s house. She was determined to tell Lexicon about what’s happened ever since she went back home after the performance. With transformation being reported, maybe that Vanq book wasn’t as fictional as she thought…

But, it just seemed rather rude to assume that someone had transformed. Besides, the city sidewalks were filled with all sorts of “unusual” anthropomorphic beings at that moment, such as a gray and blue canine with dinosaur spikes on their tail—for a specific example—as well as dragons and sergals. They usually aren’t considered uncommon at all, and could be compared with any other citizen.

Madi pushed her hair to the back of her head, resting behind her shoulders. She was either imagining things, or her hair was getting longer by the minute.

“Sheesh, I should probably get a haircut soon…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This marks the first official Pegboard Nerds appearance. Can you tell that I have no clue how to write texting scenes? Besides that, I’m happy that I managed to have this released pretty quickly.
> 
> Also, this isn’t a belated April Fool’s prank or anything, it just managed to get finished around the same time. Nothing unusual or funny this time, sorry.


End file.
